prey (for the chains of freedom)
by Shadows42
Summary: Yeager (or Jeager) means hunter in German. Beware of gems, obsessions and the monster within. Little kiddies are far more dangerous than these walls can predict.


Do not own the badassery that is SnK.

A little exploration into a headcanon.

Cross-posted from AO3, but mm.

All of the Recon Corps [as I call them], are BAMFs of the highest order, and Eren is simultaneously a cutie.

* * *

.

* * *

Eren is a hunter.

For the vast majority of those around him, this is simply because of his last name.

* * *

The sky is blue (_taunting, the mocking parody of a never-ending spring, but nobody knows_), trees are tall_ (thank fucking god for that, where would humanity be without tall objects?) _and Levi is terrifying.

All of the Recon Corps are terrifying.

Terrifying in their absolute insanity. You don't last longer than a meagre, brutal day unless your insanity was on par.

Humanity is caged behind walls, living their lives _(fucking their women, dealing their drugs, scamming their elderly, killing their friends)_, and hey, that's good enough.

We've survived.

Except for the few that struggle, that gasp and scream and writhe, and sprout wings during their lifetimes. Many of these wings are cut short, plucked bare and it's all red and white, blood and bones.

The Recon Corps are comprised of these rare men and women _(boys and girls_), and they in turn represent humanity's final stand.

Instead of sitting back and writing their final letters, instead of hiding away and crying over the dead, instead of collapsing and giving up, the Recon Corps are insane enough, stupid enough, foolish enough to stand and fight.

To fly through the air with the wings of the broken, and cut and slice and pierce until all that's left is ruined soil, fallen trees, burnt skin, dead comrades and _dead titans._

But, like the walls that have ensured humanity's safety _(like sheep, we'll mingle and bleat until we're slaughtered)_, it's another farce.

The sky is blue, the trees are green, the world is dying.

Even those within the Recon Corps hang on through a tangled, thorny mess of insanity, and even that fragile vine snaps at times.

It's a damn good thing that these vines support each other _(bar the occasional rotten vine that'll spoil the whole wall, those fucking bastards_), that these vines are tenacious, stubborn to the point of annoyance.

If you lose, you die. If you win, you live.

* * *

Eren is a hunter.

* * *

Mikasa sees this firsthand, given up and broken down on an equally rotted wooden floor.

Then a little boy appears, frightened and crying and lost.

Then it's blood and death.

Then Mikasa meets Eren Yeager, a boy of nine who's murdered two adults and welcomes her with warm arms and a warm home _(scarf) _and warmth in his gem-like eyes.

Like jewels.

Hard, unbreakable, sharpened to a deadly point.

Mikasa will follow the boy who's saved her life, who's her everything, till the day she dies, and she promises she'll live for the hunter in the guise of a boy.

* * *

Armin is all sunshine and flowers and nervous smiles and jittery anxiety and a mind sharp enough to kill.

A boy that could bring others to their knees with an apologetic smile and hunched figure.

He sees easily enough that his best friend isn't just an empty-headed idiot with too much passion and too much determination, isn't just soldier gifted with a talent _(curse, in the end it's all a curse) _that'll help them turn the tide, isn't just a hot-headed boy.

In a way he is, Armin supposes sometimes, flying through the trees, Mikasa a dancing figure of lethality, the squad around them coming together in times of jagged blades and serrated teeth.

Eren is over the top, all short tempers and fiery words, naive beliefs and unusually sombre understandings, seen too much, seen too little.

And it makes him dangerous.

The way he fires at his own pace, uncaring to the turn of the world, headstrong and capable with just the right dose of stupidity to make miracles.

The way that, underneath the blinding exterior, lies a boy that is simple-minded, driven, and ultimately, obsessed. Obsession is dangerous in these times, war on all sides, towering figures and the scent of rotting flesh and the blasts of steaming flesh everywhere their 3DMG can take them.

Eren could kill-had killed _(not just titans, because that's a given, what with those engulfing green eyes that'll drag you in)_, without a single spare thought.

A simple case of end goal, path to goal, and goal accomplished.

If that force of unstoppable rage and overwhelming passion were to ever turn against the hand that feeds it _(the hand that chains it) _god knows what would happen.

Armin knows that he'll back him up, because Eren is a monster, but only to those that are monsters to him in turn, because Eren is ultimately the best friend one can ask for, loyal to a fault, strong, and skilled when it came down to it.

A 15m titan with the intelligence of a Recon Corps soldier, a top graduate with skills that are rumoured to be able to rival that of Humanity's Strongest in times to come, and an unassuming boy that can poison with a pair of eyes, a pair of ears and a mind. And most likely, the entirety of a squad that's bound together far too tightly to unwind themselves, a jumble of all-together and an unsightly mess of desperation and dependency.

They'll tear the world asunder. _(What's left of it, anyway)._

* * *

Eren is nine when he murders some bastards preying on a girl his age.

Eren is ten when his mother is eaten, all crunchy and splattery. _(Eren! Don't make a mess at the table! she scolds, and he scowls, eyeing Mikasa's perfect way of eating with a suspicious gaze. It almost degenerates into a food fight there, but food is precious, life's support and the mind's energy_).

Eren doesn't give a shit about age when he sets out, forever supported by Armin and Mikasa, and joins the military.

Things get messy from there.

Titan shifters, conspiracies, walls that aren't really walls...

Eren doesn't give a fuck.

Exterminate all the titans, that's all he'll care about.

Get in his way, and you're a monster too; someone that's trying to hold humanity back, that won't let Eren give the stumbling bastards what they deserve.

He seeks a never-ending blue, a rising and falling green, and falling white, a world of freedom.

But for now, Eren'll make do with killing all those fucking titans.

He is a hunter, and he'll hunt his prey as he likes.

_(Who's the prey, Yeager?)_


End file.
